A great number of people around the world enjoy fishing. Whether fishing for food or for the sport of it, the calmness and serenity of the sport, coupled with the excitement of landing the big one, makes fishing a popular pastime. However, the tranquility of the pastime is quickly destroyed when dealing with tangled lures. This tangling is especially common when lures are stored with the fish hooks attached. In fact, many experts recommend removing the hooks when storing lures. However, the time spent removing and re-attaching hooks to lures may be as great as or greater than untangling them. While this wasted time is certainly stressful when fishing for relaxation, it can also mean the difference between winning and losing in a fishing contest.
Several attempts have been made in the past to assist individuals in transporting and storing lures with attached fish hooks in a tangle-free environment. U.S. Pat. No. 6,530,488 issued in the name of Krammes, Jr. provides for a fishing lure storage and display apparatus comprising transparent storage receptacles releasably suspended from a hanging rod. The Krammes, Jr. invention differs from the present invention in that it doesn't completely envelope the lures it is protecting.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,366,641 issued in the name of Price et al. discloses a fishing lure container and transporter, which is essentially a caddy with tubular compartments rotatably surrounding a core. The Price et al. device is bulkier and designed to retain multiple tubular containers on a central core that is rotatably selectable and is therefore not in the scope of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,033,648 issued in the name of Lopez-Cepero describes a fishing lure rack mounted to an interior location of a boat consisting of lure hook retainers and a pivotable cover for protecting the hook portions. This device must be mounted to a vertical wall and does not completely enclose the lure and hook in a transparent container and therefore differs from the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,820 issued in the name of Suddeth describes a tangle-free fishing lure storage container including a plurality of compartments with lure retaining slots on two pivoting lure panels disposed in a carrying case. The Suddeth device is designed to carry a multitude of fishing lures in a carrying case instead of a transparent jar and is not suited for carrying a small number of lures as in the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,577,433 issued in the name of Jones discloses a compact fishing lure and leader holder comprising rigid fiberglass pages contained within a looseleaf binder. The Jones invention, transported and stored in a similar manner to the Suddeth device, differs from the present invention as well.
Other designs have evolved to provide a means for preventing the entanglement of fishing lures that differ in scope and function from the present invention. Such designs include U.S. Pat. No. D475,852 issued in the name of Peterson and U.S. Pat. No. D262,132 issued in the name of McHugh.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a means by which fishing lures can be stored with their hooks attached in a quick, easy and effective manner.